Set Yourself Free By Telling Your Truth

It broke my heart which Sex as well as The City ended. For nearly the decade, we could pretend which women unequivocally do gather together over Cosmos, articulate about sex, career, relationships, as well as the meaning of hold up according to Carrie Bradshaw, all whilst embellished out in Manolo Blahniks as well as sporting styling haircuts, both cranial as well as pubic.As the gynecologist, my whole hold up changed when Sex as well as the City showed up. Suddenly, we had to sign up for HBO only to keep up with my patients. They would show up during my office saying, Is my vagina depressed identical to Charlottes? or How can we spin myself into the Samantha in the bedroom? Suddenly, for the initial time in my medical career, women were actually articulate about vaginas!Then it ended. And only identical to that, an era was over. we find myself anguish the weekly gibberish which got women talking. When it ended, we canceled HBO.The suggestion lives onBut Sex as well as the City lit the pilot light within me. It got me so jazzed about the sparkle which emanates from empowered women which we proposed to do things we competence never do. we proposed the blog about being authentic. we wrote the book called Whats Up Down There? Questions Youd Only Ask Your Gynecologist If She Was Your Best Friend. we motionless to frame off my white coat, get down off my alloy pedestal, as well as discuss it it identical to it is.Take swim suit waxing, for example. For many of my life, such topics would be utterly taboo. But Sex as well as the City desirous me. What if we told the truth, only identical to we was sitting there with Carrie, Samantha, Miranda, as well as Charlotte? Surely, they wouldnt judge me if we told the accurate story about my own swim suit waxing experience. Surely, Samantha would discuss it me about how she only purses her lips as well as sucks it up for the consequence of pubic beauty. Surely, Charlotte would blush as well as declare to how she cleans! up her own alighting strip. Surely, Miranda would admit which her red brush is perfect au natural, appreciate we very much. And of course, Carrie would write her mainstay about how we all must express ourselves authentically, regardless of how we demeanour when we frame off our La Perla lingerie.Surely, we are the same kind of community. It cant be an accident which Sex as well as the City resonated with so many women. we know were out there, in the flesh, dying to speak about this things in the place where we feel safe. So here goes. Lets get this celebration started.A story from my personal archives (and an excerpt from Whats Up Down There?):Most of my life, waxing held no interest for me. Going to the gynecologist once the year was mortifying enough. (Yes, even gynecologists get worried in the stirrups.) So baring it all for the waxing gurus to frame away layers of skin cells, stripes of hair, as well as my remaining tact for the consequence of pubic beauty only wasnt my bag.But the single hot summer day, we motionless to try it by myself during home. After all, Im the gynecologist, we reasoned. How tough could it be? With no the single around as well as swim suit season on me, we pulled out the home waxing kit the crony gave me as the wisecrack gift as well as plugged in the wax. One elementary step, as well as Id be bikini-ready.Or so we thought. Hours later, we found myself sitting on the single of the blow-up donut pillows we send home with women after they give birth, slathered in aloe vera as well as narcotic myself with an ice pack. Needless to say, we schooled the couple of things.Lesson #1 DO NOT request hot polish but testing the temperature first. Hot polish burns the bejesus out of you. And which butt-ugly burn sticks around.Lesson #2 Let the polish cool utterly prior to pulling it off. Otherwise, the polish will not come off in the single fell paper-ripping swoop. Instead, it leaves the gummy hornets nest! of stic ky, hairy, tangled muck which scissors cant cut as well as the single more strips wont remove.Lesson #3 Go out as well as buy nice spare wooden applicators, rather than regulating the humungous two-by-fours they embody in the kit. Its impossible to qualification the porn star alighting frame regulating the dug-out oar. Without the help of the nice, delicate, wooden applicator, youll wind up with the cue round for the coochie.Lesson #4 Dont make use of the fancy-schmancy scissors we make use of to cut your bangs to chop out clumps of wax-laden pubic hair. Theyll finish up in the trash can, stuck to the toilet paper we attempted to make use of to mop up the additional wax.Lesson #5 Make certain we pee prior to we start waxing. Nothing identical to poison on the wound to send we by the roof.Lesson #6 Load up on which polish dismissal product the kit recommends buying. Since my waxing was the spur-of-the-moment decision, we proceeded but any clean-up aids. Hours later, there we was, pubes tangled in the homogeneous of nipping gum, careening bare-assed by the kitchen in poke of utensils or products which competence rescue me from my waxy nightmare.Lesson #7 Avoid all ethanol whilst waxing. Halfway by this ordeal, we sought condolence from the leftover margarita, still in the martini shaker from the previous nights Mexican fiesta dinner party. All this achieved was the reduction in my inhibitions, ensuing in Lesson #8.Lesson #8 Vegetable oil does not clean up swim suit wax. Sure, it functions good to mislay the beeswax we make use of for my art. But swim suit polish plus unfeeling oil equals bloody disaster (literally, by this point).Lesson #9 Make certain we put your conduct hair up in the clip prior to embarking on the swim suit polish adventure. When the polish meant for your pubes ends up in your locks, it gets ugly.Lesson #10 Think twice about whethe! r we une quivocally want to be the prime lady with the va-jay-jay of an eight year old. we have to say, once all was pronounced as well as done, we felt robbed.And even if we didnt, Im far as well scarred from my the single offensive knowledge to fly my airplane down which alighting frame again, if we know what we mean. Is it protected to polish your swim suit line during home? Maybe, when intuition as well as sense are employed. However, the moral of my story is this- do yourself as well as your coochie the favor as well as seek veteran help.Have we experienced identical pubic catastrophes? Other annoying or lenient journeys? Whats your Sex as well as the City story? Were here for you, linked arm in arm, toasting Cosmos to your truth.
Lissa Rankin is an OB/GYN physician, owner of Owning Pink, as well as writer of the stirring What's Up Down There: Questions You'd Only Ask Your Gynecologist If She Was Your Best Friend (St. Martin's Press, Sep 2010).